Lost In Translation

Hardly anyone went to see Spike Lee’s new remake of Oldboy (pictured) over the holiday weekend, but it’ll have performed a valuable service if it encourages even a few viewers to seek out the original cult classic by South Korean director Park Chan-wook. And then, perhaps, to find Park’s other films, and then to seek other Korean cinematic gems.

Hollywood and other Western film industries have been remaking classics of Asian cinema for more than half a century. As the following list shows, it’s worth going back to see the originals, not just because they’re worthwhile in their own right, but because it’s fascinating to see how they’d been transformed from their original cultural context. Here, then are 10 landmark Asian movies that spawned remakes half a world away.